Charleston, South Carolina (CNN) – Rick Santorum said Friday he has felt a "palpable change" in his campaign in the past 48 hours and now feels that he's surging into South Carolina's primary on Saturday.

"Early in the week I was sort of getting the sense, you know things weren't quite going exactly with the kind of enthusiasm – it was good, but it wasn't feeling exactly like I wanted it to feel," Santorum said at the Citadel Republican Society’s annual Patriot Dinner.FULL POST

(CNN) – While Newt Gingrich insisted on Friday he would be the best candidate to compete with President Barack Obama in November, he added there was one match in which he would lose against the president.

“He’s likeable. I would never beat Obama in a personality contest,” Gingrich said on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.” “But the presidency is not about likeability. The presidency is about are you capable of doing the job?”FULL POST

Charleston, South Carolina (CNN) – One of Newt Gingrich's top advisers in South Carolina is all but guaranteeing a Gingrich victory in Saturday's Republican presidential primary.

Richard Quinn, a longtime South Carolina GOP strategist who worked for Jon Huntsman but signed on to advise Gingrich this week, told CNN Friday that the former House speaker will walk away with "between a four and six point plurality win" in the contest.FULL POST

They did so, according to aides in both parties, after each side compromised on several thorny labor issues that had held up negotiations over the bill that funds aviation programs and airport construction.

Charleston, South Carolina (CNN) - South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy defended Mitt Romney on Friday after Newt Gingrich tried to make an issue of his tax returns in the previous night’s Republican presidential debate.

Gowdy, a member of the state’s tightly-knit freshman class of House Republicans, is neutral in the presidential race.FULL POST

Lexington, South Carolina (CNN) – Rick Santorum's harried final day of campaigning here got off to a bumpy start, thanks to two flat tires on the way to his first stop.

"My daughter was in the following car and she got one of those GPS things that the last minute said 'turn here' So she turned and ran over the curb and we got 2 flat tires," said Santorum as he emerged from his car nearly 40 minutes late.FULL POST